mike | Shared With: Everyone - Jul 19 2008 | labor laws, internships, wages, minimum wage, startups
Great article on the dangers of hiring "unpaid interns". Besides not being "fair" - it's also illegal. Employers should not be asking their employees to work for less than minimum wage if they are producing valuable work product for them.
About the only safe thing is to have interns shadow an employee to watch them work. You could also offer them training, and have them work on independent projects that are non-commercial.
Any non-founder employee at a startup also needs to be paid at least minimum wage (though this may be able to be paid in equity - check with your lawyer).
Quoted: "All it takes is one disgruntled intern, or their parent or spouse or friend, to call the U.S. Department of Labor, and the company who follows this type of exploitative advice is toast,"
- mike | Shared With: Everyone - Mar 09 2007 | income, census, wages, cpi, economics
Household Incomes from 1967 through 2005. Data show that the median household income in 2005 was $46,301. Compare that to the (inflation adjusted) $41,000 in 1967.
For the lowest 5th of households, 2005 wages were $10,655. Compare that to $9,300 in 1967.
The data supports the conclusion that "real wages" are going up (on a household basis). And, contrary to popular belief, the poor are NOT getting poorer. What is really happening is that across all segments of the population, income is going UP since 1967. The rich are getting richer - but the poor are also getting richer.
However, the top 5% of households are making 26 times what the lowest 5th are making. So the rich are "pulling away" from the poor - they used to make 17 times the poorest 5th.
Quoted: Detailed historical income and poverty tables from the March Current Population Survey 1947-2005. Census Bureau data on: household income, share of aggregate income, income quintiles, per capita income, family income, and median income, and poverty by age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, state, and other characteristics.
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